I learned something the other day - this movie doesn't come out on DVD untill OCTOBER 15? That's, like, two months away! I am going to die! I swear. . . -grumbles- Anyway, in other news, there are two drabbles in this chapter that are requests from reviewers. #86 is loosley based on a suggestion from Farming Chick, and although it's not quite what they wanted, I hope it's enjoyable. #88 was suggested (a long time ago) by DOTB18, and although it took me a while to write, I think it turned out rather well. Enjoy!

~.~

85. Wishes

Toothless had learned that wishing for something could only take you so far. Wanting something and wishing for it only got you a little way—it was hard work that got you the rest. But sometimes, when he spotted that star above his head that glittered just a little bit brighter than all the rest, he couldn't resist requesting something, just for the sake of it.

He didn't really expect his wish to come true, and if by some miraculous twist of fate it actually did, he probably wasn't going to credit the star. The dragon knew that wishing on stars was a waste of time to practical people, but that certainly didn't mean that he wouldn't do it anyway.

So he perches alone on a rocky ledge above the rolling sea, his neck craned back, the little pinpoints of light reflecting off his eyes as he studies the night sky. Smiling slightly to himself, he finds his star and focuses on it, and tells it his wish.

Please, please, please, please, please. . .

86. Darkness

Toothless was not afraid of the dark. More specifically, if ever he did get scared during the night, it was what was in the dark that frightened him—not the dark itself. He had once heard a saying that urged him not to fear what lingered in the dark, because even though you could not see it, it couldn't see you either.

What this saying neglected to mention was that those who dwell in the dark usually had spectacular night vision. Understandably, it didn't make him feel any better.

So when he finds himself back-to-back with Hiccup and Fishlegs in the middle of the forest one moonless night, he isn't ashamed to admit to himself that he's afraid. Not of the dark—that thick, forbidding, heavy blackness that isolates them from each other and the rest of the world—but of what navigates the dark. Of what can see them, even though they can't see each other. Of what he knows is there, because he can feel it, hear it from time to time, a gentle swish of vegetation or a single stealthy step, just beyond his reach.

Toothless is not afraid of the dark. It's what waits within those black tendrils, watching him with gristly amusement, completely invisible, that he's terrified of.

87. Observations

"What are these?"

Hiccup glanced up at Astrid, who had found a large box beneath the table filled with leather-bound books. He shrugged. "Just journals," he told her before going back to assembling his latest gadget, some complex gizmo with lots of parts that even Toothless couldn't figure out.

Astrid picked one up and flipped through it. "What's in them? There's a ton of the things."

"Notes," Hiccup told her absentmindedly.

"Sciency stuff, then," Astrid muttered, rolling her eyes at Toothless. The dragon grinned—she hadn't even read any of it yet.

She opened to a random page full of Hiccup's hastily scribbled thoughts and observations. "If it glows in the dark, don't eat it," she read out loud.

"That's good advice," Hiccup threw in. "We were sick for a week."

The dragon nodded enthusiastically as Astrid shook her head and flipped a page, apparently not interested in what exactly it was they had eaten. "What is this?" she asked, studying the complex sequences of numbers and letters that graced the pages.

Hiccup glanced up. "Chemical reactions. See that one on the end? You could destroy a small city with that one."

Astrid gave him a questioning look.

"Just saying," he assured her hastily.

She closed the journal and tossed it back into the box, where the thirty-some others lay. "You know, Hiccup, I worry about you."

88. Similar

When it came to making friends, Toothless had decided that there really were no rules. His own group of best friends was so diverse in personality and interest that who was he to say that birds of a feather flocked together? Diversity was nothing uncommon to Toothless.

However, he had noticed something. While his human friends seemed to have no specific requirements with their companions—other than a good sense of humor and no qualms about getting beaten to a pulp on a regular basis—and dragons were similar. To the dragons of Berk, species didn't matter, nor did personality. It all just depended on if you clicked or not. However, when it came to a dragon choosing a specific human that they found a friend in, it was something else entirely.

Other than Toothless and Hiccup, nobody in Berk—dragon or Viking—considered that they actually "belonged" to someone else, but they sure were picky about who they socialized with when mingling among the other species; Toothless' human friends tended to migrate toward the dragons who reflected their personality.

For instance, Astrid's favorite dragons were the Deadly Nadders. Toothless could definitely see the resemblance: bold, strong, good at making a statement, equally as good at beating people up. The similarities between Fishlegs and certain Gronkles barely needed to be stated; all you had to do was look at them. The same could be said for Snotlout and the Monstrous Nightmares that he attracted—both had a shockingly large egos—and the twins and their Zipplebacks; two heads, two personalities, but one being in the end.

Sometimes, Toothless wonders what brought Hiccup and him together. They weren't particularly similar in any big way, after all. But then it occurred to him.

They were both crazy.

89. Distracted

If you were a friend of Astrid, it was pretty much a given that you were, at some time or another, going to be subjected to some well-meaning abuse. Like Hiccup, Toothless was no stranger to this, nor were the rest of their friends. If anything, they had become experts at getting her off their back—just cower fearfully and pretend that you were intimidated (although pretending usually wasn't necessary) and she would let you out of her clutches that much faster.

Unfortunately, Snotlout had not yet learned this.

Arguments between Snotlout and Astrid were just as violent and interesting to watch as physical fights between them—and a lot louder, too. However, unlike with the fighting, Snotlout couldn't hold his own against her for as long as one would suspect, and after about fifteen minutes of shouting himself hoarse he started to visibly weaken. That was the cue for someone to intervene and save him from being bested by a girl who was four inches shorter than him (not that this was a very rare occurrence).

Some days, it was Ruffnut who would volunteer to save Snotlout—being Astrid's best friend, she was more often than not capable of distracting the girl long enough to allow her victim to escape. Tuffnut had a more violent tactic: simply land a blind-side blow on one or the other and start a fistfight. (It was an unorthodox method, but effective. At least it stopped the shouting.)

Other times, like today, it was Hiccup who had to come to Snotlout's rescue, and when this happened, he used an entirely different tactic to distract Astrid

"You are absolutely the most—What?" She whirled away from Snotlout to scowl at Hiccup, who had tapped her civilly on the shoulder.

"I was sent to distract you," he told her truthfully.

Astrid rolled her eyes. "Yeah, well give me a minute." She turned back to Snotlout, who had not even had time to take a step, and had barely opened her mouth when Hiccup tapped her a second time. This time though, before she could start yelling again, he stepped in and kissed her when she turned to look at him.

Several seconds later when she shoved away, looking slightly dizzy, she seemed to have momentarily forgotten about her argument with Snotlout. At least until she caught sight of his retreating form from the corner of her eye, and looked momentarily torn between slapping Hiccup and chasing her victim down again before turning on her heel and taking off after Snotlout, yelling the whole way. "Hey, you get back here and face me like a man!"

Hiccup grinned up at Toothless from where he lay, sprawled out on the ground where he had been pushed. "You can't say I didn't try."